Practice Makes Perfect
by Agest
Summary: Practice has recently become a daily morning ritual for Isaac and Mia. Normally this routine would be dull and boring, but sometimes unexpected things happen - even in practice! Mudshipping Oneshot. Complete.


It's been a few months since I last finished a fanfic so I thought I'd put the finishing touches on this oneshot today and get it up.

Enjoy!

How to read dialogue in my stories:

- "Quote" marks means someone is speaking

- _Italics_ indicates thoughts

Legal Stuff:

- I don't own Golden Sun or the affiliate characters

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PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT

The cerulean haired girl Mia sat patiently in the soft green grass, hands folded gently over the traditional baby blue robe members of her clan had always worn. Her gaze was set on the blonde boy in front of her that was the only thing disturbing the calm serenity of the morning.

She watched as Isaac practiced his swordsmanship, silently cutting the air as he did the dance of battle against an imaginary foe, his blonde hair occasionally catching the sunlight and appearing to glow. Only the sound of his blade whistling through the air could be heard as he twirled and twisted to combat his invisible foes.

To a casual observer un-attuned to the elements, it would seem that Mia was doing nothing more than watching the strange dance Isaac put on, but she was in fact practicing the use of her psynergy powers at the same time. Being attuned to the element of water, Mia could feel the droplets of morning dew littered among individual blades of grass surrounding her and shifted a hand just enough to allow some of the dew to form a small pool in her hand by calling the water to her.

Continuing to watch Isaac, she froze the water in her hand and let it thaw again before causing the miniscule droplets to rise into the air in a spiral pattern. The water swirled around her hand like a miniature stream as Mia practiced fine control and manipulation of her element.

This time of practice had become a routine between the two of them, allowing the adepts to center themselves and hone their skills as they prepared to continue on with their epic quest to halt the destruction of their world.

As Mia sat there, water droplets continuing to ebb and flow while suspended in midair, she thought back to how it all began. _I still remember the day I discovered Isaac practicing with his sword in the early dawn light. _A smile graced her face at the memory.

- (flashback) -

It was very early in the morning when Mia let out a yawn and opened her eyes as a ray of orange sunlight passed over her face from a crack in the tent's entrance. Tired and blurry eyed, Mia yawned again and rubbed her eyes gently to clear her vision.

_Why am I up so early?_ The cerulean haired girl wondered to herself as she turned over so the sun was out of her eyes, still half asleep. She caught a glance and the bedroll lying next to her and even in her semi-awakened state registered that a certain blonde haired adept was missing from it.

Normally that wouldn't be a cause for concern because he could be up making breakfast or on watch, but Mia knew he didn't have a watch that night and it was too early to be making breakfast. This got her mind running and pulled her from her sleepy state because now she was curious where the boy had gone.

_Where did Isaac go? _Mia wondered, sitting up and shielding her eyes as the dawn's rays once again hit her face. Determined to find out what happened to the missing boy, she got up and swapped her nightdress for her trademark robes and ducked out of the tent. "Hey," the fiery red haired Garet said in greeting as Mia emerged, glancing around their camp.

"Good morning," Mia mumbled back in response after her eyes settled on Garet who was sitting on watch, poking the fire with a stick.

"What are you out here this early?" the fire adept asked her casually, still playing with the flames in front of him.

Mia scanned the camp once more and shrugged as she turned back to Garet. "I woke up accidentally," she explained. "I'll probably just take a walk and wake myself up," she added with a wave of her hand as she walked off in the direction of the few trees that were nearby, guess that this was probably where Isaac had gone.

Garet just gave her a knowing smile and short wave calling after her, "Don't wander too far. We need to eat and get going soon."

"Got it," Mia replied with another short wave of acknowledgement as she ducked past the first tree and headed into the small thicket. The silence that greeted her was unexpected. _Surely there should be a bird chirping or a cricket or something_, she thought as she continued to make her way between trees.

It wasn't long before the silence was broken by a whooshing sound of something disturbing the air that could only be heard due to the lack of noise in the area. Mia moved toward the sound thinking perhaps there she would find Isaac and came upon a clearing in which he was practicing with his sword.

Mia stood at the entrance to the clearing next to a tree and just watched for half a minute as Isaac swung his blade through the air and changed direction again to strike at imaginary foes. When he paused in his practice, Isaac looked over and caught sight of the cerulean haired girl watching him from the edge of the clearing. He was surprised to see her for a second but then smiled and turned toward her in greeting. "Hey Mia," Isaac said. "What brings you out here this early?" he asked, forgetting about his training for the moment and walking a few paces closer to her.

Mia just shrugged and said, "Well I woke up early and noticed you were missing…and you don't have watch today…" She blushed slightly as she realized it wasn't actually the best excuse to go looking for him.

Fortunately Isaac just laughed it off. "Mia, were you worried about me?" he asked with a grin as Mia shook her head.

"No, no," she said. "I know you can handle yourself but...It was just strange that you weren't there when it was so early in the morning…so I wondered…I was just curious where you went…" Mia tried to explain, becoming more and more embarrassed.

"That's the very definition of concern," Isaac said, enjoying how flustered Mia was at the situation. "Just say you missed me," he teased. Mia knew her face was red and opened her mouth to try to reply, but Isaac felt she was embarrassed enough and spoke before she could. "Anyway, do you want to join me?" Isaac asked her, holding out a hand inviting her to come train with him.

Mia stood there for a moment contemplating before slowly extending her hand and accepting his offer.

- (End Flashback) –-

Mia stretched her arm out and the water swirling around it changed shape and moved up above her hand before forming a miniature rain cloud. She let the water fall like rain and the droplets splattered against the grass as she let the moisture disperse.

When she let go of the water droplets, Mia allowed her attention to focus solely on Isaac again who swung his sword a few more times before pausing and looking over at her. "Are you ready?" He asked.

This was a somewhat new part of their training regimen that they had only begun last week where they could practice countering each other's attacks in mock combat. Mia stood up and replied, "Yes, let's do this." The two adepts took positions a few paces away from each other and prepared for combat.

Mia gripped her staff tightly in her hands as she waited for Isaac to make the first move. Isaac did not disappoint and led off with a quick slash of his blade toward her left side that she deftly dodged. As she did she forced Isaac onto the defensive with balls of ice conjured by her psynergetic powers. Isaac twisted out of the way of the first one and quickly used his sword to parry the other two, shattering them as he deflected them off course.

This sort of duel was inherently dangerous to attempt as any misstep could result in an injury, but Isaac and Mia moved perfectly in tune and had their dance down to a science. Isaac used his psynergy to cause a small quake beneath Mia's feet and throw her off balance as he came around for another attack that Mia blocked with her staff. As she tried to conjure a wall of frost to buy some time to recover, Isaac cast another spell of vines to slow her down and prevent her from dodging away when he swung his sword.

This time Mia couldn't block with the staff again and had to concede the point when Isaac's blade got past her defenses and they both stopped fighting. "Nice trick," she admitted to him, indicating the now receding vines that had prevented her movement.

Isaac nodded in acknowledgement of the compliment and replied in kind, "I came up with that idea the other day when you froze my feet in place so I couldn't dodge the raincloud you doused me with. Now THAT was a humiliating defeat."

Mia giggled at the memory of a soaking wet Isaac standing there with a grin on his face that said '_Well...you got me.'_

"Oh come on Mia, it wasn't THAT funny," Isaac said while walking back to the starting point for another practice bout. "I admit I was amused by your prank and wasn't expecting it, but it at least gave me an idea for a valid strategy," he pointed out.

Mia just shook her head instead of speaking and continued to laugh quietly as she move back to her starting point as well. "The cute look on your face made it totally worth it," she said with mirth as she readied up for their next round.

Isaac just shook his head at that and started the next round off by coming at her with his sword instead of responding to her comment. Mia easily blocked his sword with her staff before backing off as he expected. Seizing the moment, he once again made the ground around Mia shift in a mini quake as he rushed toward her again.

However, this time Mia was ready for it and quickly froze the dew on a patch of grass in his path while distracting him with an elaborate hail spell. Isaac was quick to respond and once again conjured vines at Mia's feet to prevent escape but failed to notice the slick patch of ice and slipped at his boot hit the slick surface. Surprise registered on his face as he fell forward and Mia knew she had bested him. Trying to prevent him from falling flat on his face, Mia moved forward and attempted to catch him but stumbled on the roots Isaac conjured and was put off balance as Isaac fell into her.

*CRASH!*

The next thing she knew, Mia was lying face up on the ground with Isaac sprawled on top of her in a tangled mess. Their weapons lay abandoned off to the side and the first thing Mia did was open her mouth to ask Isaac if he was all right.

It was in that moment that she realized just how awkward a position they were both in and how Isaac's face was mere centimeters from her own. She blushed scarlet and the words she was about to say got caught in her throat.

As Isaac recovered from the fall with a small groan more of annoyance than pain, he looked down at the blushing girl below him and froze. Mia stared into the deep blue eyes of Isaac for what seemed to be an eternity as both of them lay there, afraid to break the moment between them.

Eventually Isaac shifted and leaned in toward Mia who registered brief surprise, but closed her eyes. As she lay there in the dark Mia could hear her own excited heartbeat. That excitement began to fade and turn to confusion as she stayed unmoving and nothing happened. _Did I read that situation wrong? _She started to worry.

Tentatively Mia opened her eyes and was greeted by an Isaac with a goofy grin on his face, proving he knew exactly what he just did. "You had a leaf in your hair," Isaac said, holding back laughter and waving the stray leaf he had plucked from her hair in front of her.

Mia sighed in exasperation. "Way to ruin the mood," she said with weary smile, trying to snatch the leaf from Isaac's hand as he swiftly pulled it out of reach with a chuckle. He flashed her a semi-apologetic look before jumping to his feet. "You look cuter now without the leaf in your hair," Isaac told her.

As soon as he stood up, Mia rolled over onto her feet, thoroughly engaged by Isaac's teasing. Isaac dodged out of the way laughing when Mia tried to hit him softly for messing with her. "Isaac...you stupid and insensitive moron," she exclaimed in humorous frustration as he evaded her.

Mia was in no way actually angry at Isaac and when he allowed her to catch him, she tackled him to the ground with her and lay on top of him, giving him a pouty face as his laughter died down. Isaac adopted a serious expression for a moment and reached up to brush a strand of hair out of Mia's face. "You still have some grass in your hair," he said sweetly.

"Isaac I swear-" Mia exclaimed but was cut off as Isaac swiftly grabbed her and flipped her over on her back to mimic the situation right after they fell. Mia only had time to register a small "Oh!" of surprise before the blonde haired boy leaned in and gave her the kiss she thought was coming before.

Mia surrendered herself to the feeling of Isaac's warm lips brushing against her own in a moment of passion and wrapped her arms around him before reciprocating the kiss.

When it ended, a very content Mia sat up wrapped in Isaac's arms and gave him a look that said he was forgiven. Isaac smiled when he saw this and decided to test his luck.

"Unlike leaves, I think grass in your hair just makes you prettier," he told the girl in his arms.

Mia just giggled and rolled her eyes before leaning back in to kiss Isaac again.

* * *

This one was pending completion for about a month and I just ended up getting busy in life with graduation and a full time job and such so it took me longer than intended to finally finish it off.

As always, I appreciate reviews and feedback. Hope you enjoyed the story!


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